Topic of the practice

E-mail & Communication

Good Practice Information

The city of Schoten was looking for a new telephony system at a reasonable price. The new system should be capable of integrating new applications, such as SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), chat and Skype and also integrating with existing and future installations. The IT (Information Technology) department should also be able to configure the telephony system according to the needs and requirements of the organisation. The telephony system should also be redundant. In 2006 the IT department of the City of Schoten started to study the possible solutions. Six months were invested for this study phase before the adoption of Asterisk telephony system. In 2007 the IT department started to implement the Asterisk solution and spent four months for this implementation. Synsip, a provider in VoIP solutions undertook the installation of Asterisk: “Synsip had a good migration plan and there was a very good transfer of their knowledge in the City of Schoten”.
The open source component used for the development of the Asterisk solution was mySQL / postgreSQL database. The configuration files of this system can be accessible and modifiable. A redundant solution can easily be developed and especially, through the investment of few internal resources. A scope server and a GUI (Graphical user Interface) were used to manage Asterisk proprietary components. The license granted for the implementation of the Asterisk telephony system was GPL for Asterisk license.

Evidence of success

Main Results: Reduction of procurement/ licensing costs, Improvement of performance and effectiveness of the organisation, Enhancement of performance and effectiveness of the IT system. Perspectives: Asterisk telephony system is nowadays in operation and the perspective for the next years is to be enhanced, expanded or replicated.

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